THANK YOU Dear Carol and Chuck, On behalf of the University of Colorado Cancer Center and those we serve, thank you immensely for your generosity and belief in our mission. We are grateful that you have made such thoughtful and visionary gifts, and we are humbled by your continued partnership. We recognize that close family connections to cancer have made our work especially important to you. Your establishment of the Helen Sobas and Kristina Day Endowed Cancer Summer Fellowship honors your loved ones and opens doors for future generations of bright young minds who hold the potential to become tomorrow's leaders in cancer research. In this report, you will meet Alex Nguyen, the most recent summer fellowship recipient who has benefited from your support. This past summer, he worked closely with Sana Karam, MD, PhD, in the Karam Lab at the CU Cancer Center. Because of you, students like Alex can help pioneer leading-edge discoveries and spur innovation right here on our campus. Benefactors like you help advance our vision at the CU Cancer Center in many ways. When I took the helm in 2018, I set some ambitious goals for the future. We are preventing cancer where possible, detecting it early when the disease is inevitable, and then treating it with the most innovative therapies available. Our physician-researchers are making great strides to help the CU Cancer Center rise to a top 10 cancer center in the country. You will help us get there faster, impacting many lives along the way. Thank you for your forethought and vision in your current giving as well as your generosity in including the CU Cancer Center as a part of your estate plan. It is inspiring to know that, even beyond our lifetimes, your gift will ensure continued progress toward a future in which cancer is a disease of the past.
With warm regards,
Richard D. Schulick, MD, MBA, FACS Director, CU Cancer Center and Chair, Department of Surgery Aragón/Gonzalez-Gíustí Chair Endowed Chair in Surgery
WITH GRATITUDE FOR CAROL AND CHUCK BAUM Helen Sobas and Kristina Day Endowed Cancer Summer Fellowship
Dear Baum family, My name is Alexander Nguyen, and I was born and raised in Denver, Colorado. Being the eldest of six children and the first to go to college, I was anxious about embarking on the next step in my future. Despite that, I am now a second-year undergraduate at the University of Denver, working toward my biological sciences degree. From the macroscopic to the microscopic, I have always been fascinated by the sciences. I enjoy the challenge of learning and applying new concepts to connect previously missing puzzle pieces. Alongside a complex history of cancer in my family, my great-uncle has been battling colon and metastatic lung cancer for the past year, further driving my curiosity to learn more about the intricacies of the disease. This past summer, I was fortunate enough to be offered the opportunity to work in the Karam Lab. Dr. Karam and her lab partners have constantly been supportive and encouraging. Not only did their invaluable mentorship teach me about cancer biology and practical research skills – they also had a profound personal impact on me. I would like to express my gratitude to you for your contribution. Your generosity allowed me to be a part of an environment that has nurtured my growth as a future scientist. Your investment helped provide a platform for me to get involved in the battle against cancer.
Fighting Cancer in the Lab Alex’s project focused on tumornerve crosstalk in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). More specifically, he explored how a neuropeptide, calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), affects the CD8 T cell cytotoxic killing ability of MOC2 cancer cells. In the C57BL/6 mice models, he determined
Sincerely,
that CGRP promotes buccal tumor progression in vivo. Using a CGRP dose escalation "Alex is a natural-born scientist. Over the summer he worked with my senior MD-PhD student, Laurel Darragh, investigating how nerves modulate inflammation in the tumor microenvironment. The manuscript is currently in preparation, and due to his substantial contribution, he will be offered an authorship on it. Indeed, he did such an exceptional job this summer that I offered him a formal position in the Karam Lab starting this November. I am so excited to continue to mentor him and can’t wait to follow his journey. I know he will make a tremendous contribution to science and medicine. I also know I am very lucky to have been a part of his journey. Thank you for gifting us with his talent." - Sana Karam, MD, PhD Associate Professor, Radiation Oncology Marisco Endowed Chair in Head and Neck Cancer CU School of Medicine
cytotoxic assay, he showed that CGRP suppresses CD8 T cell-mediated cancer cell death in vitro. He further characterized this suppression by measuring interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) production of the CD8 T cells and deduced that CGRP inhibits their activation in vitro. Alex’s project has potential implications in many different cancers, including gastrointestinal cancers.
ADVANCING SCIENCE WITH A PASSION AT THE KARAM RESEARCH LABORATORY
Sana Karam, MD, PhD, is a radiation oncologist specializing in treating patients with pancreatic, head and neck, and central nervous system malignancies. She and her team in the Karam Lab are deciphering the potential to harness the power of radiation therapy as a vaccine to invigorate immune response and overcome immunosuppression. The goal is to combine radiation with immunotherapy and targeted therapeutics to improve outcomes and reduce side effects. Dr. Karam’s lab is focused on the tumor immune and vascular microenvironment and how it influences cancer cell growth – especially resistance to therapy. Using preclinical animal models for pancreas, head and neck, and brain cancers, Dr. Karam and her lab have been investigating cellular mechanisms that mediate resistance to radioimmunotherapy.
THANK YOU Carol and Chuck, Thank you for your dedication to our mission and your support for young talent who will soon lead the way in cancer research. Your gifts are not only investments in the potential of these students, but also in their dreams for the future.